He let me eat. What he’d brought in was a platter of beef and cheddar, ham and Swiss and honey roasted turkey with sprouts and cranberry sauce. Mayo and mustard on the side, fresh crunchy dill pickles and black olives the size of my thumb. The coffee was Green Mountain with half and half, just this side of lukewarm. He apologized and said it was because I had fallen asleep for 45 minutes and no one had wanted to wake me.
“Forty-five minutes? Did I sleep? Sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you all waiting,” I apologized around a mouthful of meat. I ate two sandwiches, two whole pickles and a double handful of olives. Hesitated over a third and he offered to split it with me.
“I like to see girls eat,” he sighed. “My daughter is so scared she’s going to get fat. She lives on lettuce, tea, and apples.”
“What’s her name?”
“Jenny. She’s 16, a junior in high school and is on the field hockey team.” He paused. “Tell me what happened. Why did Lakan run off?”
“We had an argument. Over something stupid that I don’t even remember. We were at my brother’s house in Titusville. Lake, Leon and I had just finished a camping/fishing trip. It’s the Bass Tournament in Titusville this week, you know.” I went on after he nodded. “We called Robin to come get us at the trail head and he’d driven us to his house near the Walmart. Lake took off into the woods and we went after him. I can track but Robin is way better. Leon came with us, driving Robin’s truck and our camping gear was still in it. Both of us grabbed our bows.” I was rambling but that was normal for someone who had supposedly suffered a shock such as the pair had done.
“Where was your brother standing when he shot Mr. Morris?”
I closed my eyes and pictured the scene; re-visiting what I really wanted to forget. Slowly, I answered him as if I were Maiara and not myself.
“Lake is lying on his belly. Blood everywhere. He’s standing over him, fumbling at his trousers---really nasty ones that are in tatters and old brown corduroy with a camo jacket. I can smell him from yards away. He stinks like old sour milk and unwashed gym shorts. He’s tall and his dick is ugly. Warts and huge bent. He spits on his hand and paws at Lake, pulling down his pants, underwear and all. I can hear Robin’s indrawn breath behind me. He curses under his breath and I hear the hum as the arrow leaves the bowstring.
“He grunts once, grabs the shaft that hits his center chest, dead on his heart and dead on his feet. His eyes roll up, blood appears in a trickle from the left side of his mouth and he falls, just missing Lake. There’s so much blood coming from Lake. I run towards him but Robin beats me there, pulls the body out of his way and makes sure he’s dead before we turn our backs to him and look to Lakan.
“He’s alive, but barely. I dig through my backpack and find the first aid kit but it’s too basic for what’s beneath my hands. Blood, so much blood, and bubbles break from the wound. Air escaping, his lungs are no longer sealed. Robin pushes me away and seals both sides with plastic bags left from our camping garbage. He has me hold pressure while he tries to wrap gauze around Lake’s chest.”
I looked up, my eyes swimming with tears. “He’s so pale, so bleached of life. I wonder if he’s died. Then, we hear people shouting, helicopters overhead. Police, searchers, EMTs and Paramedics, sheriffs. They all want to know where the girl is. The Marshal called for help and they came. They took over with Lake but wouldn’t let us leave until he told them where Sami was hidden.”
“Did he?” Chenang asked softly, speaking for the first time since I’d started.
“He hid her in a deadfall up the slope about a hundred yards from where Morris found him,” I answered. I was exhausted, burned out and nauseous, the sandwiches threatening to come back up.
“You okay, honey? You look like you’re going to faint. You want a drink of water or something?” He jumped to his feet and hovered.
“I think I need to lie down,” I offered and he went to the door, opening it and calling out for help. Two other detectives joined him as I put my head down on the table. I heard Robin and Leon’s voices in the background and felt something cold hit the nape of my neck.
Robin said in my ear, “hold this on your nape, Mairy and then drink it.”
I opened my eyes to stare at a can of cold Coke. I opted to drink it instead, the fizz settling my stomach quietly. I swallowed the burp.
“Can I leave? I don’t feel so great.” I looked up at Detective Chenang.
“I’m done with my questions,” he agreed. “In light of the circumstances, I’m sure the DA will declare it a justifiable homicide, self-defense. You might have to testify but as far as I’m concerned, this is the end of it.”
Robin and Leon both took an elbow and got me to my feet. Escorted me out to the parking garage where we all climbed into one unmarked car and were driven to the hotel. The concierge himself met us at the lobby doors and took us up to our suites. With three rooms and three beds, mine in solitary splendor. I threw off my shoes and slowly climbed onto the king-sized mattress while Leon pulled the duvet over me. I was asleep before he exited the room.
Sometime before I actually woke on my own, the Senator and Mairy joined Leon, Robin and two of his guards. My disappearance wasn’t noticed until the next doctor on duty entered my room to examine me and found the bed empty with Maiara standing in the doorway screaming that I had been abducted. She was dressed like the Senator’s secretary.
Rushed out under Lourdes’ care, she was brought to the Watergate in the guise of his personal assistant, complete with blonde hair, short skirt, and high heels. Her makeup and wig made her look this side of thirty, the square tortoiseshell frames giving her a vague school marm’s look. Barely.
The smell of coffee roused me. I sat up and swung my legs over, the pressing need to pee urgently after all the fluids I’d been on in the hospital. I paddled my way to the bathroom stumbling past the assembled crowd as if they weren’t there. No one said anything as I peed, flushed, washed my hands and followed the aroma of life’s blood. In the small kitchenette, a stranger handed me a large mug of coffee with cream. Once it hit my stomach with a delicious nugget of warmth and caffeine, I was roused to semi-coherence.
“Well?” I raised my half empty cup and the agent re-filled it.
“The shit’s hit the fan,” Mairy explained with a smile, swinging an elegantly nylon clad leg, a very expensive gray 5-inch stiletto hanging from her toes.
“Who are you supposed to be?”
“Senator Lourdes’ personal assistant,” she returned smugly.
“You mean secretary. Can you type?”
“Yes and take dictation, too. I can also scream convincingly and cry like a bubble blonde which is what I did when I discovered you were missing.”
“How did you fool the docs?” I asked.
“Dr. Ross examined you, I mean me. He had his nurses take my vitals. I pretended to sleep most of the time and no one was allowed in to visit you after you left my bedside. Once you were clear of the hospital, I dressed as the Senator’s aide and discovered you were missing this morning before the new attending came in to see you. The cops and staff are going crazy looking for you. I expect they’ll be here before long to tell you that you’re missing.” She grinned.
“Then, they’ll be heading here to question us,” Leon nodded. “We need to disappear.”
We looked at the Senator and he rose to pace the floor. “I have a car downstairs ready to take you all where ever you want to go.”
Now, they all looked at me. “I’m going nowhere. I have some people that need to learn a lesson in terror.”
I explained my plans to them and they argued with me but my mind was made up and nothing would change it. The fact that police and agents were surely coming to question us left them little time to spend arguing with me.
When I told them I wanted no one with me, their voices rose in near shrieks. “You can’t stop me,” I said and walked out.
I was in jeans, polo shirt, and a warm down jacket, my hair still dyed a warm honey blonde that had been under the blonde wig. I didn’t look anything like me, even my coppery skin was pale with a faint dusting of freckles. I looked like an effeminate boy, not a teenage superman, not even when scrubbing at my face, made my cheeks red, my forehead dark or scowled.
“Let’s go,” I said and grabbed her cell phone, the key card and the modem sitting on the desk near someone’s computer. We headed for the elevator and I asked the Senator for his car keys, taking the chip out of the electronic part of the plastic. On the way down, I had the parts disassembled and carefully inserted them into an arrangement of my own design using the cell phone’s guts.
“What are you making?” Lourdes asked curiously as we descended to the parking garage. Once the doors opened I had finished the quipp which did a number of things. I held it in front of us and every camera, cell phone and the car in the parking garage died without a whimper as I passed them. It affected all the cameras on our level but only those that could record or see me.
We passed an ATM machine and I detoured to it, holding my jammer/scanner in front of its screen. Money spewed out of the dispenser and I calmly stuffed the bills into every available pocket, giving the rest to Leon. Then, I made a call to the taxi company that serviced the hotel. Two were waiting for us at the front curb along with the Senator’s limo and driver.
I saw that everyone was sent off to their prospective destinations, all of those being the same. All of them were heading back to the hospital to visit me and to find out I had been kidnapped so that they could play their parts.
I could tell by the angry stiffness in all their bodies that they did not like my decision or my plans but frankly, I didn’t give a rat’s ass what they wanted.